[The Fountain] The weight of honor
SHIM SAE-ROMThe author is a communications team reporter of the JoongAng Holdings.
Sometimes, honor is just honorary. We often use the aura of honor to gently package the absence of substance. Korea’s first “honorary citizen,” named in 2002, was the former national soccer team head coach Guus Hiddink, who was Dutch. The Supreme Prosecutors’ Office also used to have an “honorary prosecutor” system of taking promotional photos of actors, professors and businessmen in the prosecutor’s robe.
An honorary position is a concept other than a paid position. For instance, an honorary professor is selected from those who retired from universities, as stipulated in Ordinance No. 1 of the Ministry of Education. In companies, former chairmen who withdrew from the frontline are called honorary chairmen.
Until the early 2000s, there existed “honorary chairmen” in our politics. Those were the days when imperial presidents wielded unchallenged power and also served as head of the governing party. Around the time when the next presidential candidate of a political party became the new leader of the governing party, the president also would step aside as the “honorary chairman.”
But sometimes, there were provocative attempts to advance this transition. In 1990, when three parties strategically merged to win the next presidential election, Kim Young-sam, chairman of the United Democratic Party, told President Roh Tae-woo in the middle of his term that Kim himself would serve the chairmanship after the party convention and instead the incumbent president should be the honorary chairman. That is an episode former prime minister Kim Jong-pil revealed in his memoir published on the Oct. 7, 2015, issue of the JoongAng Ilbo.
Twelve years later, separation of the party and the government began in earnest, excluding the president from the party power and affairs. Around the time the so-called participatory government led by President Roh Moo-hyun was established, a more advanced democratic party system took shape in both the governing and opposition parties.
The system was aimed at separating the chairmanship of the governing party from the presidency. (The floor leader system also was introduced at that time.) But some expressed concerns about adverse side effects such as “a lack of communication on policies between the party and the government.”
Ten years later, the Moon Jae-in administration wished to resolve this adverse effect by promoting slogans like “the party and the president are one team” or “unity is competency.” As President Moon Jae-in had higher ratings than the approval rating for the Democratic Party throughout his term, his influence helped offset concerns about the separation of powers.
Recently, People Power Party (PPP) lawmakers close to President Yoon Suk Yeol have raised their voices to have the president as the honorary party leader. As the president — a former prosecutor general — entered politics just twenty months ago, he has shallow roots in Yeouido politics. Now, pro-Yoon lawmakers want to revive the packaging of the “honorary” title which disappeared two decades ago.
They must be agonized because they have to recover the close relationship between the party and the president when lawmakers and presidential candidates not loyal to the president are gaining power ahead of the next parliamentary elections in April 2024.
In case a member of the non-Yoon faction wins the chairmanship of the PPP in the Mar. 8 national convention to elect the new chairman of the party, pro-Yoon lawmakers will certainly suffer disadvantages in getting nominations for the legislative elections next year.
But if honor can compensate for a lack of substance, that’s enough. Yoon and key members of the regime must remember the dishonorable history of the conservatives who experienced frequent disasters from the president’s intervention with party affairs, especially nominations for parliamentary elections.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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